Johannesburg - Energy Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson said the Energy Department was awaiting approval from the Treasury and from the Independent Power Producer (IPP) Office before it released a request for proposals to build more nuclear power generation capacity.
The Energy Department rejected an opposition party claim yesterday that the process to procure new nuclear energy had been put on hold.
Read: 'SA nuclear plans not stalled'
“The status quo remains, South Africa still has a nuclear procurement process. The minister did not give that indication,” ministry spokesman Thabo Mothibi said.
The DA earlier said Joemat-Pettersson had informed a parliamentary committee that an April 1 deadline had not been met and that no new date had been set. The party said this meant “the procurement process is now in limbo“.
The opposition has raised fears that the nuclear project could be the most expensive procurement in the country’s history and that decisions could be made behind closed doors, without the necessary public scrutiny.
The government has said the procurement will be done in a transparent manner.
Using the responses to the request, which the department said it would publish by the end of March, the government would determine the state of readiness of the country’s nuclear institutions and develop a funding model that would still have to win the cabinet’s approval, energy director-general Thabane Zulu said last month.
Joemat-Pettersson said: “We are working with the IPP Office, and I have said it before, they are interrogating the request for proposals and this doesn’t mean that it is stalled – it may be delayed.”
“I want a thorough and transparent procurement process subjected to proper scrutiny. The process must not be stalled due to legal process or challenges. As soon as the IPP Office and the Treasury are satisfied, then the request for proposal will be issued,” she said.
President Jacob Zuma first announced plans in February 2014 to add nuclear power capacity to the energy grid.
The cabinet approved the start of the nuclear energy procurement programme at its December 9 meeting.
BUSINESS REPORT